Finding happiness towards late June

Mid Summer in Thimphu, Bhutan.

Finding happiness towards late June

It is not often that you wake up one morning feeling perfectly happy.

 One Sunday morning in late June, I wake up feeling a complete new sense of bliss. I jump out of the bed and head towards the veranda. A fresh, soft and cool morning air blows gently past my face. I pull out a red polythene chair and sit to watch a mesmerizing morning magic unfold itself before me. I play the song SubhanAllah from the 2013 Bollywood film ‘Yeh Jawani hai yeh Deewani’on my old fashioned cell phone and listen to the melody fuse itself with the beauty of the morning.   After two days of clouds and rain, a bright sunny morning was opening up. The owner of my apartment was burning pine leaves, perhaps praying for a good day ahead. The smoke wafted across the space riding on the gentle morning wind. The river below my house was swollen. Debris of logs and leaves were being carried away by the murky water. In the orchard nearby, fresh green apples were soaked in the morning dew. Peach blossoms of the bygone spring had transformed into ripe delicious-looking peaches.

Shifting my gaze up on the mountains surrounding Thimphu valley, I could see lush green forest and meadows everywhere. Just a few months ago, the mountains wore a dry and dusty look. But nature had done its magic in a matter of few days to paint the hills & mountains fresh and green. Thin white clouds hang around the mountains like loose pure white cotton floating in the air. A flock of birds were strengthening their wings flying east and west.  Far away, towards Phajoding monastery, smoke was circling in the air above. Perhaps the monks there were burning juniper again.

A Sunday as it was, there were fewer cars and few people on the highway. The morning was not noisy as usual. A blanket of tranquil sensation had descended upon the residents of Thimphu, or so did it appear to me. As I was enjoying every moment of the magical morning, the words Subhanallah from the song being played struck my mind. Perhaps, it was time for me to say Glory to the gods and thank the Heavens for putting up a beautiful show in the nature that morning.

I logged into twitter and saw many people posting pictures of the amazing morning and saying how wonderful the day was gonna be. It occurred to me that perhaps when many people are happy, their  collective happiness influences the way our natural world functions.

The rest of my Sunday, I spent it by reading “Not for Happiness” by Jamyang  Khentse, the noted Buddhist Teacher and filmmaker from Bhutan.